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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24210385">A Home for Wayward Slytherins</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646'>Charlie9646</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Bigotry, F/F, Friendship, Gay Severus, M/M, Remus Lupin Lives, Severus Snape Lives, Snape as a father figure, Support, bisexual remus, lesbian pansy, queer platonic relationship, self hatred</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:09:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,460</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24210385</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus Snape might not have been the best of professors, but he would be there for his Slytherins when they needed him most. Pansy wasn’t going to suffer like he did - no matter what.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Pansy Parkinson/Hermione Granger, Severus Snape/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>115</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Home for Wayward Slytherins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Toni and the wheel of doom I blame both for this. But it’s also a head canon I have had for a while.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p> </p><p><br/>     “Acceptance is the key to moving on.”</p><p> </p><p>The sound of the rain hitting the roof filled Severus’ ears. It bounced off the tin shingles like pins hitting a wine glass. It broke his concentration on the old leather book that rested in his lap. Without noticing, he read the same paragraph at least four times without much thought about what was actually on the page. </p><p> </p><p>The sound of the clanging of coffee mugs filled his ears, drowning out the sound of the rain. Parkinson it seemed was up. At least she decided to wake up at a reasonable time today. The depression, of lack of acceptance from those the girl held dear finally abating, at least slightly.</p><p> </p><p>“Must you make such a racket?” Severus snapped, setting his book aside, though marking his page before doing so. “Some of us actually enjoy the peace and quiet.”</p><p> </p><p>“If I wasn’t here, you would likely never eat and not do anything else besides reading books about the magic you will never actually use.” Pansy retorted back, rolling her eyes at him from where she stood in the kitchen, back against the old scuffed cabinets that were older than even Severus himself. Her head cocked to the side, arms crossing over her chest and a smirk on her lips. She was a pretty thing, if you had a thing for girls and former students, which he had a thing for neither. </p><p> </p><p>“Beyond that, I actually pay rent to live in this dump.”</p><p> </p><p>“And no one forces you to stay here,” he growled at her. “Surely if you so desire you can find somewhere else.” His voice had far more bite than he meant it to have, but Pansy’s face did not fall, as if she knew not to take his harshness personally. Severus Snape was a lot of things, but he tended at least with Slytherin students, tended to be all show. Gryffindors were a very different story, Potter and his gang getting the roughest of treatment.</p><p> </p><p>“And if I did that you would have no one to deal with the people you despise far more than me,” she laughed. “Now would you like some coffee?”</p><p>Severus knew he should bother to answer her. The woman was only trying to be kind to him. Biting back a snide remark, he answered her. “Yes, I would.”</p><p> </p><p>Pansy filled the chipped mugs with coffee. Swiftly bringing them over and handing him his own as well clutching her own in her small hands, taking a seat in her own chair. The one long ago she had dragged from the dining room table in the living room. Severus rarely had guests, so what was the point of owning a sofa or another armchair? Though the sight of her sitting in the uncomfortable chair made him consider it might be worth taking a peek into a Muggle charity shop for a sofa.</p><p> </p><p>When they both finished their coffee, Pansy dragged out a chessboard and set it on the end table. This had become a daily ritual of theirs on days such as this, a distraction from their own thoughts and a reminder of happier times. Of times that had long since passed for both.</p><p> </p><p> For Pansy, it was the times that she used to play with her father so long ago, mostly when Pansy was home for the summer. The man would pull out the chessboard he had since his own childhood, and they would play. He would talk about the goings-on at the Ministry. While she would go on about her time at school and her summer activities. Shopping with her mother, watching boys play Quidditch, those were far simpler times, but they were long since gone, and she was the cause of that. Or at least that’s what Pansy felt - even if it wasn’t true. </p><p> </p><p>Severus, on the other hand, had played with Lily back when they were children, usually at Hogwarts. They generally did so in the Room of Requirement, which was their safe haven if there ever was one. Around their fourth year, their games had become far less common. </p><p> </p><p>Lily started to take an interest in James, and he had an interest in the Dark Arts, or that’s what he had wanted her to believe. Severus had something far more in common with Lily Evans than growing up in the same town. He too had a thing for the stupid boy with the wild hair and hazel eyes, though Severus knew quite well at that time his wretched feelings were misplaced. Foolish even - downright bloody absurd - looking back. Severus had never voiced such emotions even then knowing that they were not returned, it was a dumb schoolboy crush, <em> puppy love.</em> Severus kept his feelings close to his chest and hated that he felt such things for another boy.</p><p> </p><p>It was wrong to feel such things, or at least that was what he had thought at the time. Severus did not know what Lily would have said simply because he was far too ashamed to say such things to his friend, admitting he felt such things. Severus had never been in love with James Potter, but he hadn’t been in love with Lily Evans either. It was first the foolish notions of a child, and then the repressed sexual attractions of someone who wouldn’t dare admit how he truly felt, not even himself.</p><p> </p><p>Lily was the deep emotional bond that came from her being the first person to truly ever care about him. Looking back, he had told himself, <em> lied to himself. </em>Far too many times that Severus began even to believe it himself.</p><p> </p><p>“What is the matter with you?” Pansy asked sharply, her nose wrinkling as she did so her brown eyes boring into his own. “It’s your move, Severus, since you bloody always insist on playing as the black pieces.”</p><p> </p><p><em> The past does not matter</em>, he thought to himself, <em> what is done is done, and there is bloody well nothing you can do about it. </em> Not a bloody damn thing. The past was dead and buried, though honestly Severus sometimes too wondered if he should be dead and buried with the rest of them. People love fallen heroes; after all, living bastards are a whole different story. And if there was a bastard who ever lived, Severus Tobias Snape who he was one, even if Harry fucking Potter wanted to give him sainthood, nearly.</p><p> </p><p> People like Lily should be considered saints. Severus on the other at least to himself seemed to make one stupid choice after another, bouncing down the cobblestone road of life,  along the way smashing his face into them with each mistake, and Merlin there were many.</p><p> </p><p>Severus picked up a pawn and placed it two spaces ahead of where it previously sat. He hated wizarding chess boards, his pieces tending to snark back at him. Severus was willing to let many of them die so he may win, even at times those which he could save. No Muggle boards were far better, one of the few things Muggles did better.</p><p> </p><p>Pansy moved her own pawn and said softly, “Granger owled me.”</p><p> </p><p>“Is that so?” He asked, raising an eyebrow as he did so. “I didn’t think you had a thing for bushy-haired know-it-alls.”</p><p> </p><p>“And I didn’t know you had a thing for <em> Werewolves.</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Severus found himself biting the inside of his  cheek, stopping  himself from telling her what he did was his own business, and it was just sex. But, then that would be lying to himself, and after lying for so long, he desired not to do such a thing once the bonds of his entanglements had been broken. It wasn’t just sex. Remus Lupin understood what it felt like to be an outcast, to be mistreated, and to be seen as other. Some of which had been caused by Severus himself. The other man was bisexual, clear as day, and he was still grieving his dead wife and mother of his now motherless child.</p><p> </p><p>Severus clearly was just part of the process of getting over Tonks, not that he minded that much. The man was interesting. And whether or not it was simply processing grief or if it was actually something meaningful, it felt nice to be wanted. <em> To be desired.  </em></p><p> </p><p>Sex made him feel human, normal, typical even. Severus with Remus could turn off his mind, and that was even worth having his heart one day broken, though he surely would never tell his former student such things. Firstly it was none of her business. Secondly, Lupin hadn’t made it clear if he was comfortable with anyone knowing or even if the man was out of the closet. And finally, <em> it was none of her bloody business. </em></p><p> </p><p>Pansy surely didn’t want to think of him in any way sexually than Severus had wanted to think about Minerva and her husband. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, taking one out and lighting it before passing the pack to Pansy who took it and did the same. This was his vice, his father’s had been whiskey and Severus’ would always be the sweet taste of tobacco. He surely was a bad influence on the girl, but hadn’t he been to them all just that? And at Dumbledore’s orders at that. </p><p> </p><p>How many of them could he have turned away from the Dark Lord if he had been candid with them? Told them about his regrets and what it felt like to look in the mirror and hate yourself. Hate what you have become. The wish to burn all that you were and all that you had grown into to the ground.</p><p> </p><p>Could Severus have stopped them? Possibly or possibly not, but it would have been worth a try. But, in war, you had to think of the whole picture, every single detail. All those who would be helped and harmed by your actions. </p><p> </p><p>And in the Second Wizarding War, the most important thing was bringing about the Dark Lord’s death, at any means necessary. Even if it hurt, killed, or caused others to suffer. War and chess were about those who won not how many pieces you ended up with in the end, but the fact you won.</p><p> </p><p>“You're thinking about the war, aren’t you?” She asked him. “About what you felt like you should have done? You know Draco, myself and many fucking others are alive because of you, right? Those stupid Gryffindors are as well. Not everyone might see it, but you did what you had to do, and that makes me proud to call you, friend.”</p><p> </p><p>“Who says we are friends?” He snarled, though his face softened and Severus dropped the act. “I could have done better.<em> I should have done better. </em>”</p><p> </p><p>“And I shouldn’t have tried to give Potter up to the Dark Lord,” Pansy snapped, ashing her cigarette as she did so. “And yet here we are, <em> alive </em>. That’s all that matters in the end. That’s what counts and the people who are still here because of what you have done. You are just as human as the rest of us, Severus, it's time to stop pretending that you are not.”</p><p> </p><p>“When did you get so bloody snarky and blunt?”</p><p> </p><p>“I learned it from the best, or at least I think so, but I might be wrong on that, Merlin only knows.” She mused. “Now, when am I going to get to see my least favourite professor again? You could have him over for dinner, you know, I don’t bite <em> much </em> at least.”</p><p> </p><p>Severus couldn’t help but laugh at that comment, more so considering what Lupin was.</p><p> </p><p>“I will invite the man over for dinner whenever he decides what he wants out of whatever this thing we are doing is,” Severus said, trying not to do what he desperately wanted to do, light another cigarette. He might not be ever able to quit exactly, but Severus did need to get out of the habit of chain-smoking, mail-order potions did not pay as much as being a professor did. It had little to do with care for his lungs and more to do with concern for his wallet. “And whether or not the man has an interest in being out of the closet. When should I expect Ms. Granger to be looking down her nose at my living room?”     </p><p> </p><p>“Next Tuesday, and checkmate,” she said, giggling, showing that she was still young. Enjoying the fact that she had beaten him. “What do I win?”</p><p> </p><p>“Nothing, it's just a stupid game.”</p><p> </p><p>“Says the man who lost. I know... You have to send an owl to Professor Lupin asking if he wants to have dinner on Tuesday.”</p><p> </p><p>“Did anyone ever tell you that you are a rather meddling brat?” Severus asked. He was only joking, though clearly quite out of practice at such foolish things.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes and I am quite proud of such a fact,” Pansy said, poking fun at him just as he did her.</p><p> </p><p>They were an odd pair, but bonded in a way that only two queer people could be. Pansy was the girl tossed out because she refused to marry a man she was incapable of desiring let alone being in love with. While Severus was once the boy whose father tried to beat the fagot out of him.</p><p> </p><p>Their pain was different, but also the same, and that’s why when she had shown up on his doorstep desperate, and he had given her a place to stay. Severus no longer cared what the Pureblood families thought of him, not that they cared for the traitor mind you, now. And that’s exactly why she turned to him. Severus Snape was cruel, bitter, a snake just waiting to strike, but he did care for his Slytherins, and that would never change even if it meant becoming <em> The Home for Wayward Slytherins. </em></p><p> </p><p>“If this goes wrong, it is your fault,” he said, giving in and lighting another cigarette. “It’s your fault.”</p><p> </p><p>“And if it goes right?”</p><p> </p><p>“We shall see… Now, what do you think you would like for lunch?” Severus asked her. </p><p> </p><p>Severus would send the letter and it would turn out well. Not every single story has a sad ending, but you would never have a happy ending if you never let someone in. That was something it seemed Pansy was teaching him. Just as he was teaching her it was okay not to fit in the life someone else had made for you. Life was about living and taking chances - even when they felt a tiny bit dangerous. The war was over, and now it was time to go on living, as hard as it sometimes felt to do just that.</p><p> </p>
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